As the climate gets warmer, many forests are feeling the heat. Impacts range from increased forest fire hazards and tree mortality to detrimental beetle outbreaks and alterations to leaf abundance and bloom. Persistent warming can lead to chronic stress on forest trees, resulting in higher sensitivity to fire-induced damage. So, there may be ongoing increases in fire severity (the number of trees killed), even when there is no change in fire intensity (the amount of heat released during a fire). Phil van Mantgem will present this webinar describing results of a study that examined this topic by synthesizing existing information from plot-based prescribed fire monitoring databases across the western United States of America.

This webinar is hosted by the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (http://wildfirelessons.net), the Joint Fire Science Program (http://www.firescience.gov/), and the International Association of Wildland Fire (http://www.iawfonline.org/).